From the course: Success Habits

Getting rid of blind spots

From the course: Success Habits

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Getting rid of blind spots

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- I read an interesting piece of research into what makes people successful. We said that it's all about self-knowledge. Know what you're good at, and know what you're not good at. Fully understand your strengths and weaknesses. Then you can volunteer for things that you will succeed at, and you can either avoid or get someone else to help you with the things that you're not so good at. The problems happen when you think you're great at something that you're not. Or, when you think you're weak at something which, actually, you're quite good at. How can someone not know that they're good at something, you might ask. Well, I don't think I'm creative, but I'm told I am. And my wife is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, everyone likes her, but she can't see it. So it can happen. So how do you find out what your strengths are, and what you're not good at? Well, the obvious way is to ask other people, get feedback. This does take a little bit of courage because you have to ask about your faults, and even to check on the strengths that you think you have, you may find that you don't have those after all. But this has to be the start, ask how you can be even better. And make sure that you really do listen to them, rather than arguing in your head, saying to yourself, they just don't understand me. And then, act on what you learn. But what if the feedback you get is just wrong? They just can't see the real you. The difference between how you see yourself and how other people see you is often called a blind spot. And blind spots are important and serious problems that need to be addressed, because they mean that you're not getting your strengths out there. Other people can't see them. Either that, or they don't really exist, and you think that other people can't see them, but actually they're not there at all. So you're only as effective as other people think you are. Perception is all. If you think you're confident, but other people think you're arrogant, then effectively, you are arrogant. And if you think you're caring, and other people think that you're nosy, then effectively, you're nosy. Your effectiveness when working with other people is completely down to how you're seen. So if you do discover a difference between how you see yourself and how other people see you, then it's absolutely vital to fix that. Adjust the way that you get your message out to other people so that they can see the real you, the good you. And remember, it all starts with asking for feedback from people whose judgment you trust. Then, really listening to it. And then, acting on it.

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